The present invention relates to the simultaneous production of a plurality of blocks of rod-shaped articles, especially cigarettes, from a single row of the articles.
The tobacco-processing industry has in recent times increasingly gone over to connecting cigarette-manufacturing machines and cigarette-packaging machines directly into one production line. It has proved necessary to install a buffer reservoir between these machines in order to absorb short-term disturbances in the one or other machine. It has also proved to be expedient to process the cigarettes, which leave the manufacturing machine in a single-layer ordered stream, directly out of this stream with the aid of a row former into blocks necessary for the packaging of the cigarettes. For this, there is the possibility of at first processing the cigarettes into blocks and then putting them into storage as blocks into the buffer reservoir or to put into storage the rows delivered by the row former into the reservoir and to process them into blocks after the withdrawal.
A block-forming apparatus for the first possibility is described in the DT-OS No. 1 586 102. This is an apparatus for the formation of three-layer blocks, in which at first one row of cigarettes is conveyed forward, which corresponds to the n-fold number of the lowermost layer of a block. This row is then divided up into n groups and pushed in one row into a container for the reception of n cigarette blocks. This container is thereupon lowered by the height of one cigarette layer and a row of the n-fold number of the middle layer of a block is fed forward, which is then subdivided into n groups, displaced by half a cigarette diameter and then pushed on to the lowermost layer. The uppermost layer is then produced just as is the lowermost.
Since the middle layer of a block now mostly contains a different number of cigarettes than the uppermost and lowermost layer, it is necessary for the row former to supply rows of different numbers, which is technically very difficult and exensive, just as the realization of the transverse-axial splaying motion. A serious disadvantage is that all the containers, which form the reservoir, are only suitable for cigarette blocks of a certain number of cigarettes and number of layers, and so they must be exchanged completely on restting the apparatus for producing blocks containing a different number of cigarettes.
Because of this disadvantage, the second possibility is preferred, since rows of different length can be put into storage in one and the same container. These rows must then be formed into blocks after their withdrawal from the containers.
An apparatus suitable for this purpose is described in the DT-PS No. 1 293 672. It is possible with this apparatus to form rows of cigarettes comprising a constant number of cigarettes into blocks, as many blocks being formed at once by this device as the block contains layers, which is normally three.
It is an object of the present invention to form as many blocks as possible at once, since the operating speed of modern packaging machines severely restricts the time at disposal for block formation.
It is a further object of the present invention to simultaneously form from rows containing a constant number of cigarettes, a greater number of cigarette blocks, the number of which should be independent of the number of the layers in one block.
According to one aspect of the present invention there is provided a method for the simultaneous production of a plurality of blocks of rod-shaped articles from a single row of said rod-shaped articles disposed side by side and comprising an integral multiple of the number of said rod-shaped articles to be formed into each block, the method comprising the steps of providing said single row of said rod-shaped articles, forming said single row of said rod-shaped articles into a plurality of groups of said rod-shaped articles each containing the same number of said rod-shaped articles and simultaneously with said formation of said groups disposing each group of said rod-shaped articles into a plurality of sub-groups of said rod-shaped articles by disposing each sub-group of each group of said rod-shaped articles in a respective horizontal plane and in a stepped relationship with one another in said respective sub-group, and disposing the sub-groups in each group of rod-shaped articles in vertically overlying relationship to form a respective block of each said group of said rod-shaped articles.
According to another aspect of the present invention there is provided an apparatus for the simultaneous production of a plurality of blocks of rod-shaped articles from a single row of said rod-shaped articles disposed side by side and consisting of an integral multiple of the number of said rod-shaped articles to be formed into each block, the apparatus comprising conveyor means for providing said single row of said rod-shaped articles, means for forming said single row of said rod-shaped articles into a plurality of groups of said rod-shaped articles each containing the same number of said rod-shaped articles and for simultaneously with said formation of said groups disposing each group of said rod-shaped articles into a plurality of sub-groups of said rod-shaped articles by disposing each sub-group of each group of said rod-shaped articles in a respective horizontal plane and in a stepped relationship with one another in said respective sub-group, and means for disposing the sub-groups in each group of said rod-shaped articles in vertically overlying relationship to form a respective block of each said group of rod-shaped articles.
Said means for forming may comprise a plurality of stepped receptacle means each disposable to receive a respective group of said rod-shaped articles, each stepped receptacle means comprising a plurality of horizontal levels each dispoable to receive a respective sub-group of a respective group of said rod-shaped articles and being vertically displaceable to a raised position to dispose each sub-group of a respective group of said rod-shaped articles in said respective horizontal plane and in said stepped relationship.
Said means for disposing may comprise a storage member provided with a plurality of apertures extending therethrough to receive said sub-groups of said rod-shaped articles from said stepped receptacles, each aperture being aligned with a respective sub-group of said rod-shaped articles when said stepped receptacles are at said raised position.
Said storage member may comprise a plurality of elements disposed above one another and each provided with a plurality of said apertures, said means for disposing further comprising a cam member rotatable to cause relative displacement between said elements to dispose said sub-groups of said rod-shaped articles in said blocks thereof.
One of said elements may be fixed.
Said means for forming may comprise a plurality of conveyor belts each disposed in a respective horizontal plane to receive a respective one of said sub-groups of each group of said rod-shaped articles from said stepped receptacles, said conveyor belts being displaceable relative to one another to dispose said sub-groups of said rod-shaped articles in said blocks thereof.